The Land of Painted Caves

Earth's Children, Book 6

By: Jean M. Auel

Narrated by: Sandra Burr

Length: 34 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Ayla, one of the most remarkable and beloved heroines in contemporary fiction, continues to explore the world and the people around her with curiosity, insight, and, above all, courage.

As the story opens, Ayla, Jondalar, and their infant daughter, Jonayla, are living with the Zelandonii in the Ninth Cave - a shelter of stone. Ayla has been chosen as an acolyte and has embarked on the arduous task of training to become a spiritual leader. The wisdom that Ayla gained from her struggles as an orphaned child, alone in a hostile environment, strengthen her as she moves closer to leadership of the Zelandonia.

Whatever the obstacles, Ayla’s inventive spirit produces new ways to lessen the difficulties of daily life: searching for wild edibles to make delicious meals, experimenting with techniques to ease the long journeys the Zelandoni must take, honing her skills as a healer and a leader. And then, there are the Sacred Caves, the caves that Ayla’s mentor - the Donier, the First of the Zelandonia - takes her to see. These caves are filled with remarkable art - paintings of mammoths, lions, aurochs, rhinoceros, reindeer, bison, bear. The powerful, mystical aura within these caves sometimes overwhelms Ayla and the rituals of initiation bring her close to death. But through those rituals, Ayla gains A Gift of Knowledge so important that it will change the world.

Spellbinding drama, meticulous research, fascinating detail, and superb narrative skill combine to make The Land of Painted Caves a captivating, utterly believable creation of a long ago civilization that serves as an astonishing end to this beloved saga.

Listen to more in the Earth's Children series.

©2011 Jean M. Auel (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Admittedly I was hooked...

I truly enjoyed this series. The author obviously researched thoroughly, & the characters were incredible. I did NOT think the literally pornographic sexual descriptions were appropriate...the language was like something out of a some bad magazine. I also found many things repeated to the point that I had to assume the author was trying to use up words to meet a quota for her publisher. The editing was choppy...but that I attribute to Brilliance Audio, not to the book. I recommend it highly to adults, but despite the wonderful story & brilliant descriptions of the land, use of plants, crafts, etc., it should be downright X-rated for sexually explicit content.

You can skip this one

This doesn't add a lot to the series. The author makes the book unnecessarily long by adding in "the mother's song" at every opportunity.

disappointing story

I enjoyed the previous books but this one falls short. half of the story is just recounting of the previous books adnauseum. very little new content.
will ask for refund.

So Nice to Revisit

Thank you, Jean M. Auel, for allowing me to continue following the lives of your characters. You create a rich background to the storyline. It has been years since your last book, but took me only a minute to feel like I had never stopped reading.

Not Her Greatest Work

I am a huge fan of the Earth's Children series but I felt let down by the last volume. At times it was tedious, seemed repitious. For all that, I'm not sorry I bought and read it and I'm likely to re-read it.

good story!

Always very detailed. sometimes too much detail..however an interesting read. wish there would be another.

Earth's Children

I have very much enjoyed the earth children's series over the years. However, the redundancy of some of the facts in the books became irritating as the series went on. I understood the necessity for some things to be repeated from book the book since it was such a long time in between books. The painted caves however repeated things multiple times within that book. Certainly the writer didn't think we readers were that limited that we couldn't remember fax from chapter to chapter. The last book could probably have been cut by a third if things had not been repeated and repeated over and over again. It was almost a turn off, and I considered stopping but I did want to see how it ended.

sorry the series is over, sighhhh.

I loved this series. I'm dad is over, but I'm sure I'll listen again. my mom would have loved the series.

Left room for more

What did you love best about The Land of Painted Caves?

Book 6 so it really tied a lot of things together. Also, I was REALLY glad the graphic sex scenes was GREATLY reduced!

What other book might you compare The Land of Painted Caves to and why?

none

Any additional comments?

I'm disappointed in the graphice sex scenes. It just was NOT necessary!

Ayla only has a big accent in the 6th book.

ayla hada difficult time learning to hear that. otherwise I loved the entire series 1-60th